Press Release from the U.S. Department of the Treasury The U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced the United States will work with its partners around the world to relieve all debts owed by Haiti to international institutions and to ensure grant financing to support Haiti’s reconstruction and recovery from the devastating earthquake in January. “The earthquake in Haiti was a catastrophic setback to the Haitian people who are now facing tremendous emergency humanitarian and reconstruction needs, and meeting Haiti’s financing needs will require a massive multilateral effort,” said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. “Today, we are voicing our support for what Haiti needs and deserves – comprehensive multilateral debt relief.” Secretary Geithner also welcomed International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s call to provide full relief for Haiti’s outstanding IMF debt, including the $102 million emergency loan approved on […]

By MARC LACEY An array of human rights groups has strongly criticized the United States government for withholding money meant to provide clean drinking water to Haiti as leverage for political change in the country. The activists, in a report released Monday, called the delay of $54 million in international loans to the Haitian government �one of the most egregious examples of malfeasance by the United States in recent years.� The loans from the Inter-American Development Bank were intended to revamp the water and sanitation systems in Les Cayes and Port-de-Paix, two Haitian towns in dire need of the money to improve their infrastructure. In Haiti, close to 70 percent of the population lacks regular and direct access to potable water, experts say. The lack of clean water contributes to intestinal parasites and amoebic dysentery. The development bank, over which […]

BY PABLO BACHELET WASHINGTON – The Inter-American Development Bank on Friday accepted a U.S.-promoted proposal to pardon between $2.1 and $3.5 billion for five poor Latin American nations including Bolivia, a nation that opposes U.S. policies. The Bush administration has been pushing for the relief since March, when it proposed the operation despite resistance from several Latin American countries because of concerns that the write-off would weaken the IDB’s ability to provide subsidized loans in the future, officials said. The Latin American nations wanted the United States and other wealthy countries to help pay for the operation, but Washington argued that the IDB was strong enough to take the hit. The delay meant that the IDB did not join the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank in announcing last year a similar debt relief operation […]